


Light of the Ocean

by northernstarnavigator



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 20:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14940710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northernstarnavigator/pseuds/northernstarnavigator
Summary: Munakata hesitated. He shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t. And he didn’t want to. Somewhere along the line, Fushimi had become less of a subordinate and more of a friend, more of a son. If it was possible, he’d rather that Fushimi not take this job at all because too much was at risk.But he was the leader of Scepter 4. That came before everything else.





	Light of the Ocean

The knock on his door startled Munakata out of a half-asleep daze, and he blinked a few times before he began to tidy the papers that had strewn themselves across his desk. “Come in.”

The door swung open to reveal Fushimi, as expressionless as ever while he walked up to the desk and handed him another stack of paper. “These are the papers you wanted, right?”

“Ah, they are. Thank you, Fushimi-kun.” Munakata reached out to take the papers, noting Fushimi’s tense grip on them. “Is something wrong?”

”Even if there was, it’d be none of your concern,” Fushimi retorted, a sliver of annoyance making its way into his tone as he retracted his hand quickly. “You’re my Captain, not my caretaker.”

”It may certainly seem that way to you,” Munakata replied, setting the papers aside and folding his hands together to regard his third-in-command. “However, as your Captain and your King, it is my responsibility to care for my subordinates as much as it is to give them orders.”

Fushimi glared at him for a heartbeat before he clicked his tongue and looked away. “Whatever. It’s not like you can help anyway.”

”Is it about young Yatagarasu?”

 _Ah, there it is_. Fushimi’s eyes widened before they narrowed in annoyance in the span of two seconds. Munakata would have believed he imagined it if he didn’t know this boy so well. “I’d appreciate if you’d stay out of my personal life, sir. Not everything is obligated to be public knowledge to you.”

”To be honest, Fushimi-kun,” Munakata admitted, adjusting his glasses, “it was just a guess. I don’t interfere with the personal lives of my subordinates, contrary to what you may think.”

”A guess?” Fushimi rolled his eyes. “Founded on, what, your inane deductions?”

“No, rather on my knowledge that HOMRA’s vanguard is the only one who affects you this much. You two used to be friends, did you not?”

” _Captain_ ,” Fushimi’s eyes flashed with anger as he slowly extinguished the red aura that had surrounded his left hand. “If you have nothing else for me, then I’ll excuse myself.”

”I apologize for my intrusion, Fushimi-kun. You may be dismissed.”

The hidden weapons user pivoted on his heel as he headed for the door. Munakata watched him hesitate with his hand on the knob and turn back, the scowl replaced by an unreadable look. “What you said about caring for subordinates, sir. Is that true?”

”I would never lie about that.”

If Fushimi heard the sincerity that Munakata was trying to project, he gave no indication of it. He just jerked his head in a semblance of a nod, face devoid of any expression, and left.

Munakata watched him leave before he continued the monitoring of Ashinaka Island, but he found that he couldn’t focus. Not after Fushimi’s last question.

_What you said about caring for subordinates, sir. Is that true?_

Munakata was not one to let his emotions overpower him, but he suddenly found it hard to breathe with the heavy ache in his chest. 

He knew the meaning of that question, he had read his third-in-command’s file. Fushimi Saruhiko, born to Fushimi Niki and Fushimi Kisa on November 7, 1993. He liked video games. He hated vegetables (Munakata chuckled at that one, because of course he did). 

The rest of his file was harder to read. With an absent mother and an absent father, young Fushimi had to raise himself without any guidance from others. He had to grow up in fear of being relocated to a foster facility with even more ostracization, of his father coming home and calling out for his “little monkey,” of everything valuable to him destroyed before his very eyes. He had grown up believing that the world was terrible and cold for all the things it had done to him and had grown up to be a cynical young man.

Munakata remembered seeing him once, before he had awakened as a king, at the park- not that he knew it at the time. Fushimi had probably been no more than twelve, but he was sitting alone, cross-legged on the ground, observing ants crawl back to their hole. His eyes had been huge behind his glasses, and it seemed like nothing was wrong, but for some reason Munakata felt compelled to stay.

Then it happened. At the sound of someone’s voice, Fushimi’s eyes widened in horror and he got up and ran into the thick brush behind the park, not noticing Munakata just a few feet away. 

Then a lanky man in a purple shirt had pulled the boy out of the brush, and Munakata didn’t need glasses to understand that they were father and son.

But if that was so, why was the father addressing his son as a “little monkey”?

More importantly, why did the boy look so _terrified_?

It wasn’t until a few days after Fushimi’s recruitment that he made the connection. The boy himself had been typing away on his laptop in the main room, while Domyouji, Hidaka, and Akiyama sat a little distance away, discussing the kanji combinations of people’s names. They had started with Hidaka’s own, then Awashima’s, then Enomoto’s.

Then Domyouji had taken one look at Fushimi and “Hey, the new guy’s name is Saruhiko, right?”

”I think so. Why?”

”It’s a really weird combination. Isn’t it like, _saru_ \+ _hi_ \+ _ko_?”

”Saru??” Hidaka had guffawed. “Like ‘monkey’? Wow. Hey, do you guys think he’d mind if we called him ‘monkey’?”

”Hidaka, knock it off. That’s his name.”

”Yeah, Akiyama, I know, but it could be a nickname. Like this.” Then Hidaka had turned in Fushimi’s direction and called out. “Hey, monkey! What are you doing?”

Munakata had only been passing by the room, but he had heard the last part of the conversation quite clearly, and he walked in. Fushimi’s hands had frozen, his mouth was slightly agape, and one look at his face told him everything he needed to know.

... Suffice it to say that the three other subordinates had been _convinced_  to leave the new recruit alone, or else.

That was that, and life went on. Munakata assumed Fushimi had blocked the incident out, or had forgotten. So when Fushimi walked in to deliver a report on a stray Strain, he didn’t think much of it.

Then Fushimi had paused, awkwardly shuffling in place before he mumbled something that sounded like, _Thank you_.

It had taken a while for Munakata to understand what he was talking about, but the incident made its way into his mind, and he nodded with a smile. “Anytime, Fushimi-kun.”

The only sign that Fushimi had heard was the slight incline of his head before he walked out the door, but Munakata had felt like a wall had begun to break down somewhere.

 

 

Four years later, Scepter 4 was in pure chaos with the attack of JUNGLE.

The Silver King’s plan had been foiled with the unprecedented arrival of another King, and from there everything went downhill. The Green King Nagare Hisui had escaped with the new King, the Dresden Slates were stolen, and consequently the death of the Gold King was all in vain. 

Munakata was angry- not with anyone else, but at himself, for failing to include this possibility in his calculations and putting his clan in unnecessary danger and just failing.

Judging by the visitor who came to talk with him while he rested after bandaging himself, he wasn’t the only one.

 

_“Fushimi-kun.”_

_Fushimi’s eyes turned towards him, calm as ever. “Sir?”_

_”In the event that anything unexpected should happen during the Christmas defense of Mihashira Tower, Scepter 4 needs to sneak surveillance under the eye of the Green King.”_

_Fushimi silently regarded him, and Munakata was beginning to wonder if he understood the real reason for this talk. “Did you tell this to anyone else? Awashima-san, maybe?”_

_”No. This is a mission only you can do.”_

_”Why?”_

_”I’m sure you know why.”_

_Fushimi looked away then, clicking his tongue. “Say I take this mission. What should I expect?”_

_”Expect to be confronted by the Green King directly. Nagare Hisui is an intelligent man, so it’s possible that having a spy under his very nose will not go unnoticed. Expect his subordinates to be hostile. They’ll know yo are from Scepter 4, and with their database there is no reason for them not to suspect you of ulterior motives.”_

_”What’s the last thing I should expect?”_

_”Hmm?”_

_“You’re not telling me something. I want to know what it is.”_

_”Fushimi-kun-”_

_”Captain. Just tell me.”_

_Munakata hesitated. He shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t. And he didn’t want to. Somewhere along the line, Fushimi had become less of a subordinate and more of a friend, more of a_ son _. If it was possible, he’d rather that Fushimi not take this job at all because too much was at risk._

_But he was the leader of Scepter 4. That came before everything else. So he steeled himself and looked into Fushimi’s eyes. “Expect to be killed after you betray JUNGLE.”_

_Fushimi’s lips pressed together, and he looked down at his lap._

_“You don’t have to take this mission, Fushimi-kun. I can hand it to A-”_

_”I’ll do it.”_

_”... Very well.”_

 

Fushimi’s voice strained with unchecked anger as he stood at the back of the van, confronting Munakata about his failure in apprehending the Green King.

And even though this was part of the plan, even though they had agreed on this, Fushimi’s fury chafing at Munakata’s own self-berating didn’t sit well with him, and he turned towards his subordinate. “You must be very pleased with how this all turned out. After all, you were against this alliance from the start.” Munakata didn’t remember when he had gotten louder, but his voice was suddenly bouncing off the walls of the van. “Are you glad that the plan had failed?”

Fushimi slammed his hands on the van’s floor, his scathing wrath coming out in words too angry to take back. “Oh yeah... as well as the fact that you lost!”

Munakata didn’t move, just continued to glare as Fushimi turned around to glare at his fellow clan mates before turning back. The next words were spoken in a murmur, threatening and soothing and angry all at once. “If you’re bailing now, I’m resigning.”

Munakata held Fushimi’s gaze for a while longer before facing the wall in front of him, bringing his hands to his lap. _And so it begins._ “Fine, resign. If you have complaints against me, leave now.”

His hands twitched in his lap, as he pressed his lips together briefly, fully aware of the enormity of his next words. _Forgive me, Fushimi-kun_. “You’re used to being a traitor anyway.”

Fushimi’s sharp intake of breath sharpened the ache in his chest, and Munakata didn’t need to look at him to see the stricken, shocked, _betrayed_  look on his face. _When did this act become so real?_ “If you don’t like something, you quit. Isn’t that the kind of person you’ve always been?”

 _Stop, Reisi,_ **enough**. Munakata tried. But he had always been a better actor than was good for him, and his mouth had a mind of its own. “That’s why you could never commit yourself to one king. But you also couldn’t remove yourself from the Slates’ influence. So you just wander around aimlessly in your small world.” Against his own will, his lips curved in a spiteful, mocking smirk. “Pathetic.”

He looked at Fushimi now, and it was suddenly difficult to keep up the act in the face of his subordinate’s expressions. Fushimi’s hands were clenched, either from anger or shock, his lips were trembling with... something, and his eyes held emotions ranging from shock to anger to hurt to pure betrayal. Under normal circumstances, Munakata would applaud his acting, but even Munakata himself couldn’t tell anymore if this was still an act or if it was real, and Fushimi’s expressions were too genuine to be a result of good acting. _Fushimi-kun..._

In a flash, Fushimi drew out his saber with a yell and, amid his clan mates’ cries, stabbed it into the door of the van. _Screw your pure cause._

In a rage, he ripped off his coat and threw it on the saber. _Screw Scepter 4_.

In a moment, he turned and walked away- away from the van, away from the clan, away from Munakata. _Screw you_.

Munakata kept his smirk up, and but inside he was a mess. He had failed two times this night. 

In an instant after, the question remained- go after him or let him leave?

In response to his subordinate’s question, “Let him go.”

Fushimi’s fate now rested with the man himself.

 

 

Fast forward to two and a half weeks later, and JUNGLE fell with the Silver King’s Damocles Down and the death of the Green King.

Munakata stared at the sky, dazed but relieved in the wake of his powers gone. He had been so sure he would die, almost did if it weren’t for Isana Yashiro’s impeccable timing. 

For a moment, he had been in the previous Red King’s place, his own sword crumbling without chance of reparation, and when he closed his eyes, he could still see him. _How the tables have turned, Suoh_.

He could almost see Suoh chuckling past the cigarette in his mouth, golden eyes twinkling in mirth. _Thought you took better care of yourself than that, Munakata_.

Munakata chuckled in turn, although the guilt he had since ending the Red King began to lessen. _I know, right_?

He turned away from the sky and walked towards the Scepter 4 van. Fushimi was already there, a shock blanket draped over his green jacket and a newly wrapped bandage on his leg. He looked up as Munakata approached. “Captain.”

”Well done, Fushimi-kun. How’s your leg?”

Fushimi glanced down as though he’d forgotten, and then looked back up. “How do you think it is?”

Munakata honestly would have believed he was serious if he hadn’t seen a smirk playing at the edges of Fushimi’s mouth, and he smiled in turn before he sat down next to his subordinate, who gave him a strange look. “Sir?”

”I apologize for the things I said after the Christmas invasion. Even knowing it was part of the plan, I didn’t intend to go so far.” Munakata stared out into the bay of Shizume City without actually seeing it. “Forgive me, Fushimi-kun.”

There was a huff from beside him, and now Munakata turned. “There’s no use dwelling on things that have already happened, sir. The mission was accomplished successfully, let’s leave it at that.”

 _He’s grown up_ , thought Munakata with another smile. _I’m proud of him_. And he placed his hand on Fushimi’s shoulder _(and he was grateful that Fushimi didn’t move away)_. His subordinate only looked at his face, down to his hand, and then in the other direction, clicking his tongue. It would have been more convincing if Fushimi hadn’t been smiling.

It wasn’t a hug, but it more than compensated for one.


End file.
